Читать книгу The Mysteries of Bilingualism. Unresolved Issues онлайн
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People also travel, within a country or between countries, to be schooled or to go to college in a different language. The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and many others welcome foreign students for their studies who often stay for several years. Even shorter stays are enough to anchor a new language. The world’s most successful mobility program is the European Erasmus program. Since it began in 1987–1988, it has provided over three million European students with the opportunity to go abroad and study at higher education institutions or train in a company.6
There are many other reasons for the extent of bilingualism one of which is intermarriage. This often results in households being bilingual where at least one spouse has learned the language of the other and uses it at home, and where children often learn different languages. Another reason is simply that many professions require people to know and use two or more languages: language teaching, interpretation and translation, the hospitality, travel and leisure industries, diplomacy, media, research, and so on.